Along the Lily-Pads 



is concentrated chiefly on the taut line that 

 throbs and vibrates in his teeth. 



The angler who has never fished with his 

 teeth has missed a certain subtle, keen re- 

 finement of nerve-excitation that must be 

 experienced to be appreciated. There is an 

 exquisite delicacy and minuteness of report 

 constantly flashing over the nerves to the 

 brain. Every throb and quiver of the spin- 

 ning spoon, every slightest obstacle it en- 

 counters on its way, the swing of the strain- 

 ing line across a bend in the stream, the 

 impact of a reed or lily-stem along which it 

 drags for a moment, the slight snap of the 

 merest tendril caught by a hook, and the leap 

 of the spoon as it is released, the very rush 

 of the pike or pickerel from his hiding-place, 

 and the preliminary shock of contact with 

 the hooks ere the sudden tremendous tug of 

 the strike itself all these submarine secrets 

 are telegraphed to the angler's brain through 

 the delicate, sensitive nerves of the jaw, 

 while he sits expectant, with his fifty feet 

 of line between his teeth. I have heard it 

 said that sometimes a fisherman loses a tooth 

 when a monster pike grabs his hooks; but, 

 if so, the man must either be asleep or of the 



'33 



